06/19 ESPN & DX.com Speculation

[bango_the_buck]

Crap. He giveth and he taketh away...

[bango_the_buck]

Hopefully it's just posturing, trying to get us to up the ante, but in the end we'll get our guy...

[Mike X]

I agree. All the Randolph haters are going to be crying in their beer.

Could be right.

Wichmae makes that post after alot of dogging of Randolph the previous page then I see this post by Wichmae "if we pass on Westbrook and Randolph at 8 for Alexander I am going to be pissed..."

So I says to myself, I says, why didnt Wichmae say alot of us Buck fans will be disappointed. And I starts gettin this itch, you know the type you get after you were at the local "massage" parlour the night before, I gets this itch, that wont stop itching, and I says to myself, I says, its becuse wichmae isnt disappointed, becase he's professed his fondness for Randoplh before, becuse he knows you see, he knows, he knows that the Bucks loved Randdolphs workout, they loved him, they loved him you see, more then Twirly loves an enema.

[Pressey]

I can totally buy this. In fact Redd and 8 for #3 was my sig not too long ago. If the Wolves coveted Lopez and Redd, I think they'd still draft Mayo and have Milwaukee draft Lopez if he's still available. Then the trade will be made.

Redd and 8 is pretty steep. I'd also ask for Minny's second rounder. But then again, Hammond did hint at many folks being disappointed by the lack of perceived value that the Bucks would receive for certain players.



This thread makes for some good reading. I don't think Redd's talent is what is causing the lack of perceived value, it is his contract (Larry Harris still haunts the franchise). I don't know how jacked up I would be over a backcourt of Mo and OJ. A 6' 3" off guard concerns me. We shall see. I prefer getting Mayo for Redd more than the junk that Cleveland is offering.

[carmelbrownqueen]

Yeah I'm already disappointed.

[europa]

If wichmae thinks a lot of people here will be disappointed that leads me to speculate that:

1. Redd won't be traded (98% of the board wants him gone).
2. The Bucks won't be making a trade to get a proven impact starter.
3. The Bucks will stay put at 8 and draft Randolph.

Those would seem to be the three top things which would disappoint this forum the most.

[carmelbrownqueen]

If wichmae thinks a lot of people here will be disappointed that leads me to speculate that:

1. Redd won't be traded (98% of the board wants him gone).
2. The Bucks won't be making a trade to get a proven impact starter.
3. The Bucks will stay put at 8 and draft Randolph.

Those would seem to be the three top things which would disappoint this forum the most.

[europa]

Well at least Kirby will be happy.

[LUKE23]

I still think if we stand pat we're taking Alexander.

[MikeIsGood]

Alot of you guys are going to be disappointed come draft night...

If we draft Randolph I'll be a lot more than disappointed. I'll be depressed, irritated, agitated, and soon-to-be drunk.

[smauss]

I still think if we stand pat we're taking Alexander.

If we stand pat @ #8, then I'm REALLY hoping Luke and not europa is correct.......... (no offense europa!)

Personally, I'll be disappointed if we begin next season with the same PG.........

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

I don't want to start a new thread for this, but it's slightly interesting:

It's the Monday before the NBA draft and not one top draft pick has signed with a shoe company.

It’s partly due to the fact that there’s just not one standout slam dunk, marketable player in Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley or O.J. Mayo. But it’s also due to several other factors that can’t be ignored.

I’m going to say right now that the seven-year, $90 million contract LeBron James signed in 2003 with Nike NKE
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[NKE Loading... (%) ] will be the equivalent of the 10-year, $252 million playing contract Alex Rodriguez signed with the Texas Rangers in 2000. There will never be a shoe contract that will surpass LeBron’s deal in total dollars, unless it’s the extension LeBron signs.

But even that’s in question. Why? Because while James somehow lived up to the hype on the court, his shoes haven’t.

“Nike overspent on LeBron,” said Matt Powell, an analyst for SportsOneSource. “They haven’t gotten out of him what they paid for.”

The only reason why Nike has definitely made their money back on Dwyane Wade and likely made sense on Carmelo Anthony was because their initial contracts were for $400,000 and $3 million a year, respectively.

Here are some more factors to consider.

The basketball shoe market is down from the $4.5 billion the market was at when Nike signed LeBron. Powell says this year basketball shoes will gross in the $2.5 billion range.

Then consider how dominant Nike is. Adding up Nike, Converse and the Jordan business, Nike has a 93 percent share of the basketball shoe market, the largest take of any shoe business by one company.

And finally, consider this. Michael Jordan is still Nike’s best endorser by a mile. Powell says sales of the Jordan brand make up a larger percentage of the overall shoe business than they ever have. For every three pairs bought in this country, two of them (67 percent) are the Jordan brand. Nike has a 24 percent share, adidas has a 4 percent share and Converse has a 2.5 percent share.

Given these numbers, you can imagine what it would take for Nike to fork over big bucks when they already have a basic monopoly on the business. And you can imagine how marketable a certain player would have to be in order for adidas to jump at him.

Five years ago, the power was in the hands of the players and the agents. Agents like Aaron Goodwin, who structured LeBron’s Nike deal, made sure to get LeBron signed before the lottery so that a smaller market wouldn’t hinder his contract earning potential. (The persistent rumor that LeBron would have made more in New York is not true.) Carmelo was also signed with Nike before the draft.

But, given the state of the market, and the state of the players -- no, O.J. Mayo is already not “the next LeBron” -- all the power is in the hands of the shoe companies. And it looks like they’re content to wait to see who goes where before they decide how much to pay them or if they should go after them at all.

[wichmae]

Its not like they arent trying to make deals happen. They are. Trust me.

[paulpressey25]

That's a great post Adam...thanks for putting it up.

I'm amazed that Nike has such a monopoly but more amazed that the market has dropped from $4.5b to $2.5b. That is a massive industry contraction. Given Nike's market position, that probably explains why David Stern got Greg Oden out to Portland last year.....

[carmelbrownqueen]

Its not like they arent trying to make deals happen. They are. Trust me.

Thanks for all the information...

Do me a favor, foward the Hollinger and DX.com statistical analysis info to your sources so they can see just who poorly Randolph has rated in almost every catergory. Choosing him would be a huge disappointment.

[fam3381]

I'm amazed that Nike has such a monopoly but more amazed that the market has dropped from $4.5b to $2.5b.

I was shocked when I first read that, but then I re-read it and noticed it was only talking about basketball shoes--it would be weird if people just weren't wearing shoes, period

When I was a kid I always wore basketball shoes as my regular shoes to school and stuff, but in the last decade I've probably owned two pairs of them (only for actually playing basketball). I guess it's some combo of people playing less ball, not wearing basketball-specific shoes to play, or simply wearing other shoes for non-balling activities.

[wichmae]

Its not like they arent trying to make deals happen. They are. Trust me.

Thanks for all the information...

Do me a favor, foward the Hollinger and DX.com statistical analysis info to your sources so they can see just who poorly Randolph has rated in almost every catergory. Choosing him would be a huge disappointment.

Wouldn't matter...

[carmelbrownqueen]

Its not like they arent trying to make deals happen. They are. Trust me.

Thanks for all the information...

Do me a favor, foward the Hollinger and DX.com statistical analysis info to your sources so they can see just who poorly Randolph has rated in almost every catergory. Choosing him would be a huge disappointment.

Wouldn't matter...

I'm truly disgusted...

ETA: I don't understand their interest in this kid and would much prefer for them to grab Alexander, but oh well, perhaps their gamble will pay off but I'm not holding my breath.

[RAtheMONsession]

I personally want to see Redd stay put in a bucks uni.

Guys i really want to trade are Mo Williams, Charlie V, and Bobby Simmons (hopefully along with CV)

The bucks need to get rid of one of Mo or Redd, and Redd is 10 times more the team player then Mo is. I would hopefully trade CV for a vet, starting PG, then trade Mo for that "Mid 1st round draft pick" it was rumored we could get him for. Then hopefully the draft works out like this

#8- Alexander
#13-17- Rush
#37- DJ White

Then enter next season with...

PG- Vet PG from Mo trade/Sessions/Bell
SG- Redd/Bell/Rush
SF- Mason/Alexander/Rush
PF- Yi/White
C- Bogut

[LUKE23]

Nothing is set in stone whatsoever. People are getting too worked up over nothing more than interpretations off of essentially zero detail given by wichmae (no offense to him personally, I'm just saying he really hasn't said anything at all, people are just drawing their own conclusions and running with it).

Randolph is not a Skiles/Hammond type player. Not saying we are surely not drafting him, just saying I think those that think it's a lock at this point are off their rocker.